Barney Ross is a man with nothing to lose. Fearless and void of emotion he is the leader, the sage and the strategist to a tight knit band of men who live on the fringe, former SAS operative and savant with anything that has a blade, Lee Christmas; master at close quarter combat, Yin Yang; long barrel weapons specialist, Hale Caesar; skilled demolitions expert, Toll Road; and combat veteran, sniper expert and loose cannon, Gunnar Jensen. When the mysterious Mr. Church offers Barney a job no one else would take The Expendables embark on what appears to be a routine mission; overthrow a murderous dictator of a small island nation and end the years of death and destruction inflicted on its people. However they have an even more dangerous enemy awaiting them - rogue CIA operative James Monroe and his henchman Paine.